\u2026And you\u2019re gonna hear me roar! Yes, I did just quote Katy Perry. I\u2019ve got no regrets about that. Speaking of regrets, something you always hear when others are doling out advice about how we should be living, is to live a life of \u201cno regrets\u201d. Do you want to make that decision now, or live with regret later on, always wondering \u201cwhat could have been\u201d? The problem is that most of us already have regrets in life, and hearing that type of advice always seems to stir them back up. I think making decisions to avoid any type of regret is the wrong way to go about it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve gone through some things in the past few years that have really made me look at the path I\u2019m on, and how far that path is from where I want it to go. There\u2019s a lot of things I regret along the path I took, and beating myself up over it was making it extremely difficult to change course. Regret doesn\u2019t have to be a bad thing, if you\u2019re treating it as more of a life lesson.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t just dwell on the \u201cwhat could have beens\u201d in life. What\u2019s done is done, and you need to learn from it, or you just end up digging yourself deeper. The problem with the idea of living a life of no regrets is that it\u2019s not for everyone. We can\u2019t all just ignore our obligations and just steer our lives toward some skydiving trip. Many of the choices we make in life revolve around the situation that we\u2019re in, and it\u2019s not as simple as just pulling the trigger and going for it.<\/p>\n
I just think that making the decision just to avoid the regret of not making that decision is backwards. It\u2019s far more effective to make a decision to achieve a positive, rather than avoid a negative. Why not make the choice to do it, because you want to be better at something, or learn a new skill. Dwelling on the choices you didn\u2019t make, is an anchor that tends to change your mindset and attitude. There\u2019s a type of aggression to chasing things, just so you\u2019re not always wondering what could have been. But when you make those decisions because you\u2019re collecting life stories, skills, friends, and other positive things, it\u2019s easier to walk the path.<\/p>\n
That being said, don\u2019t let regret hold you back anymore! Don\u2019t wallow in self pity, beating yourself up, because you passed up a great opportunity, or didn\u2019t seize the day when you were young. I regret not having done a better job at saving\/investing 10-15 years ago. But that\u2019s not stopping me from learning about it now. I regretted not getting in better shape after my first son was born. But that doesn\u2019t help me progress in the gym. I do wonder what would have happened if I actually did spend more time and energy into training to get into mixed martial arts (I\u2019m not saying I had a shot\u2026I would have started from the ground up).<\/p>\n
Some days I regret the decision to focus more on career and family, but I also don\u2019t like getting hit in the face. I don\u2019t have the heart of a champion in that particular arena. However, I look at where I ended up, and rather than wondering what I could have been, I\u2019m very happy with what I actually am. Obviously there are plenty of things I want to change, which is what I\u2019m doing now. But as cliched as it sounds, I wouldn\u2019t trade places with anyone else. I\u2019m already too comfortable where I am, and the path I\u2019ve chosen to travel.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m chasing goals, skills, and experiences, because that\u2019s what I want. Not to avoid wondering what would have happened, but to say it actually did happen. I\u2019m finding a lot of inspiration watching others around me learn and grow. My sons are both learning to play instruments (something I\u2019ve wanted to do since I was there age). As a family, we\u2019ve all started learning archery. My brother and I have gotten into powerlifting and now we are attempting to solve the Riddle of Steel, and reach the 1000 pound club. I\u2019ve got the eye of the tiger! Every day of every year, I want to be able to say that I\u2019m a better version of myself than I was yesterday.<\/p>\n
(This was originally posted on my other blog, NRRDS.com)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2026And you\u2019re gonna hear me roar! Yes, I did just quote Katy Perry. I\u2019ve got no regrets about that. Speaking of regrets, something you always hear when others are doling out advice about how we should be living, is to live a life of \u201cno regrets\u201d. Do you want to make that decision now, or…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12,2],"tags":[13,15,16,14],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-skills","category-writing","tag-art","tag-power-lifting","tag-skills","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eye-of-the-tiger.jpg?fit=590%2C220&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Mn7O-q","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eviltwinbrian.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}